Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives
Little is known about the consumer preferences of next-generation plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives, two food technologies that offer a demand-side solution to the environmental, nutritional, and other societal concerns associated with animal-intensive agriculture. To address this gap, th...
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doaj-479b07e7eb54414f83dd895ffe3c45362020-11-25T03:17:20ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502020-05-01124377437710.3390/su12114377Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat AlternativesRashmit S. Arora0Daniel A. Brent1Edward C. Jaenicke2Department of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USADepartment of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USADepartment of Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, and Education, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USALittle is known about the consumer preferences of next-generation plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives, two food technologies that offer a demand-side solution to the environmental, nutritional, and other societal concerns associated with animal-intensive agriculture. To address this gap, this paper estimates consumers’ willingness to pay for four sources of protein (conventional meat, plant-based meat, cell-based meat, and chickpeas) in a developing country with rising demand for meat—India. A latent class model of a discrete choice experiment conducted in Mumbai identifies four heterogeneous segments in the Indian market. Aggregating across all four segments, respondents are willing to pay a premium for plant-based meat and a smaller premium for cell-based meat over the price of conventional meat. However, our main findings show that these premiums strongly differ across the four consumer-class segments. The results offer important insights into future price points and policy options that might make these meat alternatives commercially successful, and therefore, a viable option in addressing societal concerns.https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4377meat alternativeswillingness to payIndiachoice experimentlatent class modeldeveloping countries |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Rashmit S. Arora Daniel A. Brent Edward C. Jaenicke |
spellingShingle |
Rashmit S. Arora Daniel A. Brent Edward C. Jaenicke Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives Sustainability meat alternatives willingness to pay India choice experiment latent class model developing countries |
author_facet |
Rashmit S. Arora Daniel A. Brent Edward C. Jaenicke |
author_sort |
Rashmit S. Arora |
title |
Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives |
title_short |
Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives |
title_full |
Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives |
title_fullStr |
Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives |
title_full_unstemmed |
Is India Ready for Alt-Meat? Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Meat Alternatives |
title_sort |
is india ready for alt-meat? preferences and willingness to pay for meat alternatives |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2020-05-01 |
description |
Little is known about the consumer preferences of next-generation plant-based and cell-based meat alternatives, two food technologies that offer a demand-side solution to the environmental, nutritional, and other societal concerns associated with animal-intensive agriculture. To address this gap, this paper estimates consumers’ willingness to pay for four sources of protein (conventional meat, plant-based meat, cell-based meat, and chickpeas) in a developing country with rising demand for meat—India. A latent class model of a discrete choice experiment conducted in Mumbai identifies four heterogeneous segments in the Indian market. Aggregating across all four segments, respondents are willing to pay a premium for plant-based meat and a smaller premium for cell-based meat over the price of conventional meat. However, our main findings show that these premiums strongly differ across the four consumer-class segments. The results offer important insights into future price points and policy options that might make these meat alternatives commercially successful, and therefore, a viable option in addressing societal concerns. |
topic |
meat alternatives willingness to pay India choice experiment latent class model developing countries |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4377 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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